Pretty When She Destroys (7 page)

Sergio emerged from the nearby restroom and strode over. Amaliya’s cousin was tall, muscular, and a little imposing until he smiled. He was loyal and good-natured, but tonight he was scowling almost as much as Benchley.

“I guess this is where I call it,” Sergio said. The man was obviously still grumpy about his dismissal.

“It’s for the best, man.” Benchley clapped the other man on the shoulder. “Shit is going to go down and you’ve got kids.”

“Yeah, which is why I should help,” Sergio groused.

“I know it’s not much of a consolation, but I’m not completely in agreement with Cian on not having you involved.” Jeff tried to watch his words carefully, but it stung that Cian had basically taken over the group tonight. “I think you could be an asset, but at the same time you have more to lose...and so does your family.”

“Cynthia would kill me if I got injured, or worse, died,” Sergio admitted, sighing wearily. “She didn’t even want me here in Austin tonight. She wants to take Cian’s offer.”

“Cian’s offer?” Jeff arched an eyebrow.

“Yeah, Cian’s been trying to throw money at us since Grandmama died.” Sergio’s green eyes were rimmed with red and a little watery. Like Amaliya, he had been close to his grandmother and her death had hit both of them very hard.

“Money? Really?” Alexia cocked her head. “What for?”

“He wants us to go into hiding. Somewhere far away. He’s been on me almost every night. But tonight, when Amal said what she did...” Lowering his head while shuffling his feet, Sergio let out a slow exhalation. “Well, I get it. When I thought she had been murdered I was so angry, so full of despair. I would have done anything to have changed her fate. When I found out she was still alive, - well, sorta alive - I was so relieved. Then we lost our grandmother and all those feelings came flooding back. I understand how she would feel if something happened to...” He pointed to himself.

The group around Jeff remained silent. Jeff caught the swift look between the two siblings. They had yet to actually lose someone close to them to the world of the supernatural. The brutality of the hidden world was something he understood very well. Jeff had lost his mother and his leg. Innocente had been someone they had known and liked, but not actually loved.

Eduardo, meanwhile, seemed completely unconcerned.

There was a subtle shift in the air and Jeff glanced over to see Rachoń was no longer in the room. Samantha was checking her phone while sauntering over to the group. She had a distracted air about her.

“Everything okay?” Jeff asked.

Samantha shoved her phone into her purse. “Yeah. Mom’s bugging me about Sunday dinner.”

“I meant about Rachoń?”

Shoulders sagging, Samantha toyed with one of the curls at the nap of her neck. “Uh, I suck as this phasmagus thing. I couldn’t answer any of her questions.”

“Told you.” Eduardo nudged Benchley with one elbow. “Talking about Prosper
.”

“Well, I wasn’t much help. I am still struggling with the whole ghost thing. I can’t control which ghosts I see. They just show up randomly.”

“I’m totally going to help you with that,” Benchley promised. “I’m already chasing down some leads to get some really primo information.”

Jeff slid an arm around Samantha as she snuggled into his side. “You’ll catch on. You’re the first phasmagus in a very long time.”

“I suppose asking you if you saw my grandmother recently is not the best idea?” Sergio said, hope in his voice.

“I haven’t seen her since that night,” Samantha answered sadly.

Sergio bobbed his head, already surrendered to that possibility. “That’s good though, right?” Sergio looked between the ghost hunting siblings. “It means no unfinished business?”

“It means she went into the light,” Alexia assured him. “She’s on the other side.”

Benchley appeared to be about to say something, but Jeff lightly kicked his ankle. Sergio needed to be comforted, not overwhelmed with Benchley’s many theories about ghosts.

Sergio didn’t notice, or chose not to. The big guy nodded, then looked toward the hallway. “I guess I should say goodbye to Amaliya. Do you think Rachoń is still around?”

“You think she’s scary, too, huh?” Benchley grinned.

“I think she’s nice,” Samanth
a said. “In a scary sort of way. She really does care about her family.”

“But we’re not her family,” Jeff reminded his girlfriend, giving her a significant look. “She’ll put them first, every time. Even if it means letting us die. Or killing us.”

“I wouldn’t go as far as saying I would kill you,” Rachoń said from the entrance of the hallway, a slight smile upon her full lips. “We’re allies now. I take that fact very seriously. And, I’m trusting you with Baptiste.”

“I didn’t mean any offense,” Jeff said, wishing he’d chosen his words a bit better.

“None taken. You were speaking the truth.” Rachoń drew closer to them, her maroon eyes examining each one. “I’m about to take my leave, so I thought I’d impart some wisdom before I depart.”

Jeff sensed his crew tensing around him. There was something definitely unnerving about Rachoń’s manner. She moved like a snake, each movement measured and graceful.

“Okay,” Benchley said, his voice cracking.

“Treat each other like family. Don’t let what comes next drive a wedge between you.” Rachoń gave them all a significant look, then vanished in the blink of an eye.

It was the first time any of them had seen a vampire disappear into thin air.

They were all stunned.

“Did that scare anyone else?” Benchley was several shades whiter than usual.

“Totally,” Aimee said from where she stood with Cass near Jeff’s office.

“Vampires and their dramatic exits,” Cassandra grumbled as she stalked over to join them.

“Well, on that note, I’m making my own,” Sergio announced.

Jeff extended his hand, wishing that Sergio could stay and fight, but knowing that it was probably wise if he took Cian’s money and went into hiding. His own father had fought when others had told him to flee and he had lost his wife and almost his son. Sergio ignored his hand and gave him a bear hug instead. When the big man embraced Samantha, they spent several moments whispering to each other before parting. Benchley gave him a fist bump while Alexia deftly avoided a hug and shook his hand. With some consternation, Jeff realized Eduardo had slipped out when no one was looking.

By the time the group located the two vampires (who were kissing in the stacks) and finally locked up the bookstore, Jeff had an ugly knot of worry forming in his stomach. The only thing around him that felt stable and certain was Samantha. Her arm around his waist was his lifeline to sanity. Aimee and Cassandra stood to one side sharing worried looks while Benchley appeared just as gloomy as his jilted sister. Amaliya and Sergio’s goodbye was terse despite the affection they obviously had for one another. Cian forced a check into Sergio’s hand, his look steely.

No wonder Rachoń had departed after tossing her pearl of wisdom at them. She could see that they were already splitting along the seams, breaking into small clusters.

Jeff pressed a kiss to the top of Samantha’s head and inhaled the sweetness of her scent. Maybe he wasn’t cut out to lead any of them for he had no idea how to rally the troops and find the unity they would need to defeat The Summoner.

Tangled up in the bed sheets, Amaliya listened to the absolute silence that filled the bedroom during the day. The soundproofing kept the neighborhood noises at bay, but also created an aura of sterility within the room that made Amaliya uneasy.

Cian was perfectly still beside her. The daylight plunged him into the deep vampire sleep that robbed him of all signs of life. During the day he was nothing more than a corpse and Amaliya hated that fact. She also hated that when she was asleep, she was just also a dead body waiting to reanimate. It was the only part of being a vampire that she truly disliked.

Though Cian was jealous of her ability to awaken in the early afternoon, Amaliya disliked slipping back into consciousness only to be trapped inside the darkened room with Cian’s unmoving form. She was not like other vampires, and she often resented that fact. The Summoner had made a new type of vampire when he had created her. Her early awareness was just another part of the curse he had inflicted upon her. She wondered if Bianca would have suffered the same way if she had survived the transformation and risen as a vampire. How much would she have been like Amaliya?

Bothered by her thoughts, Amaliya rolled onto her side in the large bed, putting her back to Cian and staring at the wall. She wished she could return to the deep vampire slumber, but she rarely ever did. Oftentimes she just lay in bed reading, or listening to music. Her Kindle and iPod sat on the bed stand fully charged and waiting. Yet she didn’t feel like doing anything another than staring into the dark.

Sergio’s awkward departure weighed on her. His hug had been tight, but it had also been angry. Though Amaliya was certain that Sergio shouldn’t be a part of their battle and needed to hide his family just in case they failed, it had hurt to send him away. Sergio and her grandmother were the only two people in her family she felt she could trust and rely on. Now they were both gone and she felt adrift and alone. Cian loved her for who she was now, but Sergio and Innocente loved her because of who she had once been: a lost child who just wanted to be loved. Though she was now a powerful vampire necromancer who was absolutely loved by Cian, the girl she had once been was still inside her. That girl wanted to run away, hide, and avoid what was coming.

“I wanted to run away,” Bianca’s voice said with a sigh.

Amaliya sat up, twisted around, and found herself in the coffee shop where she had spent her last few hours of her human life. “I fell back to sleep,” she said in awe to the slim
blonde girl seated across from her.

“Only for a little bit,” Bianca said, shrugging. “The sun will go down soon.”

Bianca was just as Amaliya remembered her. Fair hair, big blue eyes, small pink cupid bow mouth, a fashion style that was perfect for the old Nineties grunge scene, and a desperate look on her face for love and approval that reminded Amaliya far too much of herself at eighteen.

“I can’t trust you,” Amaliya said, sadness filling her. “You might be
him
.”

Fingers playing with her coffee mug, Bianca nodded. “That’s true. He’ll try to fool you. It’s what he does.”

“I wanted to save you. I had hoped that I wasn’t the only one, you know?” It felt foolish to pour out her feelings to a dream phantom, yet Amaliya wanted to say what she’d been keeping hidden away since the night at the graveyard. “I really needed you. I have Cian. I love him. I had my human family, too. I didn’t realize how alone I felt until I realized The Summoner had stolen you from me.”

Bianca let out a long sigh. “We could’ve helped each other.”

“I’m remembering things now. From when I was a kid and I thought I was making things up. That I had an over-active imagination. But now I know what I saw were ghosts. I just learned to turn it off. Maybe that’s why I always felt so removed from everyone and everything. I had to make myself that way to survive, but it robbed me of something important.” Amaliya rolled her eyes and laughed. “Gawd, I sound like I’m on
Oprah
or something.”

Bianca gave her a wistful smile. “Yeah, you do.”

“I’m so sorry you’re dead. I’m so sorry that he took your body from you. I’m so sorry that I’m going to have to destroy your body to kill him.”

“Amaliya, I’m not dead.” Sliding her hands across the table, Bianca’s fingers stopped scant centimeters from Amaliya’s. With her chin on the table, Bianca stared up at Amaliya. “I need you to find me. I’m still alive.”

The atmosphere of the dream instantly darkened as the air grew cold and stale.

“This isn’t real.” Amaliya hesitated. “Right?”

Bianca closed her eyes, tears sparkling along the edge of her eyelashes. “I’m still here.”

“Bianca?” Amaliya lashed out, trying to grab her hands, but darkness flooded over Bianca, consuming her. “Bianca!”

Amaliya awoke again.

Sitting up, she pressed her hands to her face to discover she’d been crying in her sleep.

Chapter 4

The second Amaliya stepped into the gaming store, every eye in the place turned toward her and all conversations instantly ceased. Benchley rocketed out from behind a long counter toward her while his sister yawned dramatically and continued tapping away on a laptop.

“Hey, Amaliya!”

Benchley’s voice filled the store. The noticeable lack of talking was starting to annoy Amaliya, as were the pointed stares in her direction. Wearing black jeans, a Black Sabbath tank top, and high heels, Amaliya knew she looked hot, but the attention she was getting was ridiculous.

“Haven’t y’all ever seen a woman before?” Amaliya muttered.

One half of the store was filled with books, collectible dolls, boxes filled with miniature armies, and things Amaliya would label as nerdy. The other half of the store was crammed with long tables covered in small buildings, foliage, and figurines surrounded by human males and only one or two females. The boys and men were of all ages, from a kid who looked around ten to an old wizened man in a wheelchair. Half of them needed a shower desperately.

“Neck beards, return to your games!” Alexia shouted from behind the counter.

The rumble of voices started back up just as Benchley reached her. “I didn’t know you were coming to the store tonight.”

“Neither did I,” Amaliya confessed. Sweeping her hair back from her face, she glowered at a guy who was breathing heavily while staring at her. “But I need to talk to you. It’s important.”

“Yeah, totally. Let’s talk in my office.” Taking her arm, Benchley rushed her toward a door that opened to a small office. “Ignore the weird looks. Most of these guys have never seen a girl that looks like you in real life.”

Amaliya narrowed her eyes. “So that gives them permission to be totally weird?”

“No, no. It’s just...” Benchley shook his head, then ushered her inside the small cramped office.

The walls were covered in posters for a variety of games sporting scary looking men with huge weapons. A few movie posters were thrown into the mix, most of them sporting sexy women in leather. The desk was covered in books, notebooks, paper clutter, a laptop, and then a much bigger desktop computer with a wide screen monitor. On the screen a spaceship was floating in space. Like the rest of the store, the room smelled like a guy who needed to take a shower and put on fresh clothes. It was the smell that inhabited most of the dorm rooms of the college guys she’d dated.

Sitting down on a folding chair and crossing her legs, Amaliya stared at Benchley. “Well? Why the freakout?”

“Some of the guys out there are totally cool. Good paying jobs, steady relationships, the works. But some of those guys, this is their life. Sitting in this store and playing games. Maybe they lost a job and can’t find another. Maybe they had a bad life and gaming is the thing that makes it better. And some of them...some of them have no clue how to interact with another human being because they were never treated like a human being. By anyone. I will talk to them about the staring though. That was totally uncool and creepy.” Benchley sat in his battered office chair and scratched at his beard nervously. “Honestly, Amaliya, I’m somewhere down the middle of all those guys. I have a rotten track record with broads.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t call women ‘broads’. That could be your problem.” Amaliya folded her arms over her breasts and arched an eyebrow.

“Good point.” Benchley’s one eye kept twitching and he kept looking everywhere but at her.

“Are you okay?”

Laughing nervously, Benchley said, “Uh, I’m a little...uh...scared.”

“Because I’m a woman and in your office?”

“No. More like because you’re a vampire and a necromancer and could kill me with your pinky.”

The words stung even though she knew he hadn’t meant them to hurt. “You’ve got a point. But we’re friends, so I’m not going to eat you.”

Benchley’s face turned a shade of red that was pretty impressive. “Cool.”

There was a knock on the door and a second later it opened. Two teenage boys stood in the doorway. One was a chubby Hispanic boy with dark hair and thick glasses that made his dark eyes enormous. The other was a redhead that looked scarily like a short, skinny Napoleon Dynamite.

“Bench, can we set up another table for the card players?” the redhead asked. “The Warhammer dicks claimed all the tables again.”

“Sure, sure. You know where they are,” Benchley answered in a rush, obviously trying to get rid of them.

“You look like Megan Fox,” the boy with the glasses blurted out.

Amaliya scowled.

“No, she doesn’t!” the other boy protested. “She totally looks like Eliza Dushku.”

“She doesn’t look like either one, dumbasses,” Benchley said testily. “Now out!”

The boys started to argue, but Benchley pushed them firmly out of the office, shut the door, and locked it. When Benchley looked at her, Amaliya dramatically rolled her eyes.

“Sorry about that. Yeah, so, where were we?”

“I’m not going to eat you.”

“Right!”

“And we were about to talk about why I’m here.”

Benchley shoved his hands into the pockets of his cargo pants and paced behind his desk. “Look, if you’re here to tell me I shouldn’t be crushing on Samantha, I know you’re right.”

“Well, yeah, you shouldn’t be, but no, that isn’t why I’m here.”

“Oh.”

“I’m here because I need your skills.”

“My skills?”

“Jeff says you’re the guy to go to when it comes to researching spirits, ghosts, and that sort of thing.”

Benchley visibly puffed up. “Well, yeah. I am. I’m totally that guy.”

It was amazing what a little flattery could do to a guy’s ego, Amaliya thought. She fished her list out of her pocket. “I need some information about possession. Like...when a person is possessed, how much are they aware of what is going on around them? Can they find a way to communicate past the...uh...entity possessing them.”

Benchley sat at his desk, hunched over, and started scribbling on a pad of paper. “Okay. What else?”

“If a dead body gets possessed, is the spirit of the person still attached to it? I did some internet research, but it didn’t make sense to me.”

“Most of the stuff on the internet is just old wives’ tales. The real information is hidden from the general public.” Benchley grinned at her. “People get into enough trouble with the occult just screwing around with low-end spells. Can you imagine what would go down if the hardcore real stuff was on the internet?”

“You mean like bring on the end of the world?” Amaliya flipped her hair over one shoulder and winked at him.

Benchley’s face reddened again. “Yeah. Something like that. So, what else do you need?”

“Everything about Josephine Leduc and her daughter. Everything. Especially details about her powers. I need to know how to do the stuff Bianca’s mother did, especially astral projection. I tried looking this up online, but it seemed like bullshit to me.”

“Like I said...” Benchley nodded.

“Exactly. I don’t have a handbook on how to be what I am, so I need you to help me piece it together the same way you’re going to help Sam.” Amaliya handed the list over to Benchley. “Here, just take this. I have some more notes on there. Stuff I’m not too keen on Cian or Jeff seeing. It’s between you and me.”

With quivering fingers, Benchley took the paper and started to read it. “Amaliya, this is some serious shit.”

“Yeah.” Amaliya shrugged dismissively though she was just as unnerved as Benchley appeared.

“This thing about Bianca…you don’t think it was a dream?”

“Maybe. But if Bianca is somewhere trapped inside her own body, I want to find a way to communicate with her.”

With a low whistle, Benchley scratched at his beard. “But The Summoner might catch on to what you’re doing.”

“That’s why you’re going to find a way for me to do it without alerting him.” Amaliya gave him her fiercest glare. She may have overdone it because he visibly flinched. “If I can talk to her, maybe she’ll know what he’s going to do, where he is, and how I can stop him.”

Sagging in his chair, Benchley opened a drawer, pulled out a fresh file folder, and shoved his notes and Amaliya’s into it. “Can I say something?”

“Sure.”

Benchley’s gaze brushed over her, then the cluttered walls, before returning to the folder. “All my life I’ve been a gamer. I know all the rules. Just like those people out there, I know how to roll the dice, measure the moves, and do all the shit I can see you don’t give a fuck about by that look on your face. My point is this. Gaming is neat and tidy. There are rules. But this thing we’re facing has no rules. It has no neatness. It’s going to be fuckin’ chaos, and I hate that. I hate that I can’t open up a book and just find the answers. Figure it out. I’ll help you with this because it makes me feel like maybe, somehow, you can make all this shit make sense. The rest of the group might not want to admit it, but you’re our biggest gun, and maybe our only hope.”

Amaliya tried to look as nonchalant as possible. Though she knew he was right, she didn’t want to actually admit to it. To do so would be almost too much for her to deal with at the moment. “Fine. But I’m not dressing like that.” She pointed to Alice from the
Resident Evil
films glowering out of a poster dressed in a sexy outfit.

“Aw, c’mon. It would be so wicked!”

Amaliya flipped him off.

Benchley grinned. “I’m on this. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Thanks.” Sliding to her feet, Amaliya hooked her thumb onto her belt. “Bench, maybe I am the big gun, but you gotta get me my ammo. That makes you important, right?”

The comment brightened his face slightly. “Yeah. Sure.”

Amaliya unlocked the door and jerked it open. “See you later.”

“Benchley!” a male voice shouted. “We need you. Your sister made a bogus call.”

Alexia stood near a table clutching an open book to her chest. She looked as mad as the man glaring at her.

“Alexia knows that rulebook better than me, Jericho! What she says goes!” Benchley called back.
To Amaliya he whispered, “I’m not stupid enough to override my sister.”

Waving to Alexia, Amaliya swiftly made her exit, ignoring the stares that followed her ass.

The hot, balmy Texas air buffeted her as she strode toward the dark sedan she had driven to the store. Jeff’s occult bookstore had lights on even though it was after hours. Samantha’s car was in the nearly empty parking lot. Amaliya was glad that Jeff and Samantha seemed to be doing well. Every once and awhile guilt nibbled on her when she considered how much she had screwed up the blonde’s life, but she rationalized it away by concentrating on the fact that Samantha was happy with Jeff.

“He lets you go out alone?”

The dark, rich voice vibrated through her eliciting an immediate response in her lady parts. Spinning about, she found herself face to face with the coyote.

“What’s up, Eduardo?”

It was unnerving how silently he could move. It also bothered her that she had let her guard down and let him get so close.

“Is the old man in the store still? Because there is no way his possessive ass would let you out of his sight,” Eduardo said, obviously teasing her.

Amaliya lifted one shoulder. “Maybe I snuck out.”

The coyote was dressed in very tight jeans and a white t-shirt that showed off his impressive muscles to full effect. The menace that oozed off of him only added to his sultry sex appeal. He was all bad boy and just the type of guy Amaliya had gone after during her college days. Despite his clean-cut appearance, she sensed the feral aspect of his nature just below the surface.

“So, he doesn’t totally control you.” Eduardo tilted his head, his eyes glinting with dangerous allure.

“No one controls me,” Amaliya answered, setting her hands on her hips. He was baiting her and she knew it, yet she couldn’t resist playing along just for a little bit.

Eduardo inched deeper into her personal space, sniffing the air. “You always smell of roses.”

“And you smell like...” Amaliya hesitated. His usual musky cologne was barely masking the scent of fresh blood.

The grin he flashed her was all sharp teeth.

“Did you eat a bunny rabbit or something?”

“I ate a pussy.” The grin widened.

The heavy fragrance of the blood filled her nostrils and her body responded hungrily. Animal blood held no attraction to her, which meant... “Human blood? What the fuck did you do?”

“I told you I ate a pussy,” Eduardo licked one canine as his other teeth returned to a more human appearance.

Wincing, Amaliya took a sharp step back from him. “Oh, fuckin’, gross!”

“Like you never had a period.” Eduardo guffawed.

“Not anymore. Thankfully.” Amaliya definitely liked that perk of her undead existence. She’d hated the cramps she used to suffer.

Eduardo leaned against her car door, his sexy body carefully posed for her viewing pleasure. “Like you vampires aren’t into sick shit. I bet you and Cian are a pretty bloody mess by the time you’re done screwing.”